Even Harry and Meghan’s most ardent fans are abandoning them.
The formerly pro-Sussex publication The Cut, part of the ultra-woke New York magazine, published a wild little article last week.
Column inches are apparently among many things the Sussexes lost in 2024. In just three paragraphs, writer Danielle Cohen eviscerates the couple and their new Netflix docuseries, ‘Polo.’
Cohen called the couple’s attempts at generating a hit “tortured” and cited the litany of bad reviews: “tedious,” according to The Telegraph; ‘unintentionally hilarious’, according to The Guardian, before entering Gruesome Twosome.
“It seems this one is destined for the same fate as Markle’s beleaguered jam company,” he wrote. “Although the couple co-produced the show, it appears to have been more of Harry’s pet project: he is a long-time polo player and apparently “had a vision.”
If this “vision” was similar to reports of his aborted podcast idea (interviewing people like Vladmir Putin and Donald Trump about their problems with their parents), it’s no wonder it’s a flop.
Meghan, of course, has remained delusional as ever, telling Town & Country last year that she and Harry “have so many interesting things on the (Netflix) list.”
Sure. Who wouldn’t believe someone whose podcast flopped, whose animated series was axed, whose launch of lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard failed to get off the ground?
Even Harry and Meghan’s most ardent fans are abandoning them. Formerly pro-Sussex publication The Cut published a wild little article last week. In just three paragraphs, writer Danielle Cohen eviscerates the couple and their new Netflix docuseries, ‘Polo.’
“It seems this one is destined for the same fate as Markle’s beleaguered jam company,” Cohen wrote.
Here’s the thing: The United States has entered a new phase of this relationship. We don’t even talk to these two anymore. We have become completely disinterested. And that is the death knell for Brand Sussex.
Was it fun to hate-watch your first Netflix series, Meghan mocking your bow to the Queen, Harry looking mortified and both of you complaining incessantly? Of course!
Was dissecting ‘Spare’, with its humiliating revelations about Harry’s frozen ‘child’ and his mother’s face cream as the ultimate ointment, a guilty pleasure? You bet.
However, just as the opposite of love is not hate but indifference, America has become bored. We have heard and seen it all.
We have become that party guest cornered by the whiny fool no one wants to talk to, haplessly looking around for a brighter conversationalist. Or at least a refill of champagne.
The same applies, apparently, to the H&M overlords at Netflix. As my colleague Alison Boshoff reported this weekend, a source at the streaming giant says executives are “exhausted” by the couple, and Meghan in particular.
“It’s a lot of work with her,” the source said, “and, bluntly, the ‘deliverable’ doesn’t seem worth it.”
Another Hollywood executive warned of Meghan’s upcoming Netflix show about cooking, entertaining and friendship: Yeah, who among us wouldn’t take notes on Meghan Markle’s art of maintaining healthy relationships? – It better be a success.
“His show,” this source said, “will have to be a huge success to turn around his deal” (reportedly worth $100 million) “and his reputation in this town.”
Oh yes. Let’s get to those reputations.
Meghan signed on, with great fanfare, to be represented by Hollywood powerhouse Ari Emanuel at WME in 2023.
Now: Were Meghan or Harry at WME’s glittering Emmy party in September? No.
Did Emanuel – despite his significant penchant for killing or at least softening stories about his clients – manage to stop that month’s wild Hollywood Reporter article? You know, the one titled ‘Why Hollywood Keeps Giving Up on Harry and Meghan’ that described the duchess as ‘relentless’?
No, he didn’t.
That same publication, by the way, reported in June that Harry’s ‘Heart of Invictus’ documentary series was, according to Netflix data, one of the streamer’s biggest bombs in 2023, capturing just 300,000 eyeballs.
“It happened without warning,” the report said.
Much of what the Sussexes do these days happens without warning. And why not? Now that the Palace has cut off their information supply, these two can no longer provide the only content that once interested America: royal gossip.
To many of us, they have revealed themselves to be deeply uninteresting people whose sole circumstance (proximity to the Crown) was the only thing that made them compelling, let alone relevant.
And so: apparently there are no invitations for them to state dinners at the White House.
Nor, apparently, to the luxurious and starry 70th birthday party that her neighbor and former interlocutor Oprah has just organized for Gayle King.
There appear to be no offers to host the Met Gala, or fly with Bezos in his spaceships, or even have tea at Ellen’s (the latter having moved from Montecito to, irony of ironies, the Cotswolds).
However, Meghan was invited to a friend’s baby shower last week, along with guests Blake Lively, who has had her own bad year PR-wise, and Crystal Kung Minkoff, former cast member of ‘The Real Housewives’. of Beverly Hills’.
‘Real Housewives’ feels more and more like Meghan’s lane, doesn’t it? Although theirs is a late-stage story, the same old conflicts are now torn and mangled, leaving viewers disengaged and network executives wondering whether to renew for another season.
Here’s the thing: The United States has entered a new phase of this relationship. We don’t even talk to these two anymore. We have become completely disinterested. And that is the death knell for Brand Sussex. (Pictured: Royals together at Sandringham for Christmas 2018.)
One wonders what the atmosphere is in Sussex. The royal family, of course, is preparing for its annual gathering at Sandringham, and the Duke and Duchess of Despair were once again left off the guest list.
Kate Middleton, the most loved and admired member of the family, ends the year having completed chemotherapy and triumphant in her annual ‘Together at Christmas’ carol service.
Prince William just had a friendly meeting in Paris with our President-elect Trump, who praised how “really, really handsome” William is and mentioned that King Charles is “fighting very hard” against his own cancer diagnosis.
It looks like Donald Trump may know more about the royals’ health battles than Harry at the moment.
Meanwhile, hagiographer and long-time friend of Sussex Omid Scobie, with whom they are still involved, despite his epic mistake of leaking the name of so-called ‘racist royalty’, revealed the ‘Happy Christmas’ card on Monday of the couple, which presents a new image of their children, who are growing rapidly.
Little Lilibet, who is now 3 years old, has seen her grandfather, the King, only once.
You might think that the Sussexes’ top priority would be to somehow forge a relationship between the ailing king and his young grandchildren in America.
Unfortunately, there are jams to sell.